Tom-A-to, Tomaa-to . . .

My mom would be so proud of me. . . Not only have I grown my own tomatoes this year, I have also grown basil and oregano as well as a few other herbs (not to mention the lettuce carrots and radishes I grew from seeds). But yesterday was the culmination project that she would still be smiling about! I took those tomatoes, oregano and basil, added a few other ingredients (onion, green pepper, garlic, olive oil) and TA-DA ! I made my own fresh spaghetti sauce!

Not being from an Italian background, it means that I had no previous experience in making something like this. I dont’ even think my Mom made any like this. she would occasionally saute some tomatoes and put them over rice in a South American style. Dad always liked foods that reminded him of home.

I hope I can get a few photos of the lovely products to you soon. DH has absconded with the cord that allows me to download said pictures to the computer. I’m sure it was unintentional, he’s such a computer geek all things computer belong in his computer bag, don’t you know. . . ahem.

Anyway, the big question was going to be HOW DOES IT TASTE? And I know what you are thinking, it probably turned out like any amateur tomato sauce job. . . So I let DH try it with his dinner last night before I froze the rest for a special dinner. He loved it! It has such a great tomato flavor. I couldn’t believe it myself.

I’m so glad that I saved a number of the seeds as I was preparing the tomatoes for the sauce. I grew the plants from seed and the flavor of them is wonderful. And I don’t care for tomatoes! These are really meaty and grow in odd shapes. According to my horticulture teacher they have a “cat facing” on the bottom. some of them turned out looking like there are two or three tomatoes stuck together, but they are one!

There are still tomatoes growing in the garden, but they are fewer and farther apart. I wonder if I could freeze them and make sauce later as others become ripe? It is unfortunate that the number of tomatoes I cooked only produced 1 quart of sauce. I’ll just have to produce more next year!